The eighth season of Power Rangers, successor series to Power Rangers Lost Galaxy, and adapted from Kyukyu Sentai Go Go V. It was the first Power Rangers series to be completely independent from its predecessor, and to drop the secret identity trope. Lightspeed Rescue was a government-sponsored agency, dedicated to protecting the city of Mariner Bay from the return of Queen Bansheera and her minions.

Captain Mitchell, accidentally made aware of the threat, assembles a team of rangers, including his eighteen-year-old daughter, Dana, a paramedic; Carter Grayson, a firefighter; Kelsey Winslow, extreme sports enthusiast; Joel Rawlings, stunt pilot; and Chad Lee, a whale trainer and martial artist. At first, the potential Rangers want nothing to do with it, but upon witnessing the threat with their own eyes, they embrace their position as civil servants.

It turns out that Mitchell was prepared for the arrival of the demons because he has had experience with them in the past...

Lightspeed is the first season to feature an entirely American-made ranger, the Titanium Ranger, as Go Go V did not have a Sixth Ranger. It also was a military-esque, government funded and organized team, with Secret Identities entirely non-existent.

Lightspeed is somewhat divisive among the fandom; some consider it to be one of the better seasons, while others consider it to be sub-par. Most people cite the villains and some of the acting as weak points, while the storyline and action sequences are often claimed to be the show's saving grace. The fact it was succeeded by what is considered by some to be the best season probably didn't help matters much. In general, this season is considered the weakest of the Judd Lynn era.

Recurring Power Rangers tropes include:

All Your Base Are Belong to Us: The Batlings take over the Lightspeed Aquabase. Rather uniquely for a Power Rangers series, the Rangers responded by turning the trope on its head and invading Bansheera's temple for the finale, destroying it!

Chest Insignia: Operation Lightspeed logos on the belts, personal shield shapes as the faces of the helmets. The design on the chests (eighths alternating white and colored) is also pretty distinctive, and looks a lot like the Umbrella Corporation's logo.

Humongous Mecha: Besides the obvious, the Supertrain Megazord deserves special mention - It's formed from the vehicles that carry the Lightspeed Megazord into battle, and because of this, dwarfs most monsters and all of the other Megazords that Lightspeed used.

Combining Mecha: There are three separate team combinations in the Lightspeed, Supertrain, and Omega Megazords. The Lightspeed Megazord can also combine with the Max Solarzord to make the Lightspeed Solarzord.

The Psycho Rangers: The Cyborg Rangers for this season. They weren't intended to become Mariner Bay's own Psycho Rangers though — GeneralMcKnight just wanted them to replace the Rangers just because of their lack of human frailties. However, one bolt of lightning was enough to make them malfunction and turn them into deranged androids considering that they were only programmed to fight and not use moral reasoning or sound judgement. Just as Ms. Fairweather said, they lacked a heart.

Sealed Evil in a Can: The villains are released from the Tomb of Forever by some unwitting nomads. The villains then go about trying to free their still-sealed Queen. They all more or less end up that way again in the finale when they are either destroyed (sending their spirits back) or by physically being thrown back into the Tomb of Forever, sealing them in the Shadow World.

Weapon of Choice: In general, Superhero Packing Heat. The Lightspeed Rangers are some of the few who do not favor swordplay, instead using their blasters for the most part. This is most notable with Carter in "Forever Red".

This subseries contains examples of:

Adult Fear: Captain Mitchell was forced into a situation where he either allows his son to be taken or let him fall to a fiery death. Desperate he plead Diabolico to save him, and begs him to give him back, only to be told he'll never see him again until his 20th birthday. In all those years, his son believes he didn't care about him at all.

Alas, Poor Villain: When Bansheera forces Diabolico to shoot Loki. Loki laments prior to expiring that he devoted all that time to serving his Queen, only for her to turn on him instead- rendering it all pointless. This is what fuels Diabolico's Heel–Face Door-Slam.

Alpha Strike: The Lightspeed Solarzord's Finishing Move, which basically consists of blasting the living tar out of the target with everything it's got (specifically, blasters on it's head, chestplate, gauntlets, and two massive hip cannons formed out of the Solarzord's arms).

And the Adventure Continues: Even though their time as Rangers is over, the end of the series features the rangers running off to help with another fire. Later seasons imply that Lightspeed Rescue eventually got up and running again.

Arbitrary Skepticism: "No such thing as monsters" in "Trakeena's Revenge". Even discounting the prior portion of the season, it's the crossover, confirming that yes, the last seven years of monster attacks count. Because of this, Linkara has labelled the woman who said this "The Dumbest Woman In Power Rangers Ever."

What makes this even worse is that Lightspeed Rescue is the first season where the Rangers didn't have secret identities - they were openly known as the Power Rangers in public. Furthermore, their non-Ranger identities were rather well known.

Avengers, Assemble!: How all the Rangers (except Dana) are recruited in the first episode. Each of them is in their element (Kelsey's rock-climbing, Carter's rescuing someone from a fire) when they're approached by Lightspeed agents.

The Supertrain Megazord. While it's larger and more powerful than zords it carries, the Supertrain Megazord required a lot of power to operate, and overloads would often harm the Rangers, until Ms. Fairweather stabilized the Megazord's power output.

The Lifeforce Megazord. It was potentially more powerful than the Supertrain Megazord, but its power source was drawn from the Rangers' Life Force, making it a weapon of very last resort. The Rangers are forced to use it when all of the other Megazords were either destroyed or disabled.

Backstabbing the Alpha Bitch: Diabolico swore revenge on Queen Bansheera for the way she treated her supporters. He got a excellent revenge in the final battle, helping the Power Rangers seal her away forever.

Bad Boss: Queen Bansheera. Quite possibly one of the worst people to work for. Unlike previous villains who had comedic sides, or had genuine love for a friend or family member, Bansheera has neither. Even her own son is expendable to her.

Big "NO!": From Captain Mitchell, twice in the episode "Truth Discovered". The first time happens when a young Ryan is about to fall to his death and his Mr. Mitchell cries out for his son to be saved. The second time is when Diabolico as a spirit takes away Ryan and decrees to Mr. Mitchell that he will not see Ryan until his 20th birthday.

Cain and Abel: Ryan and Dana respectively, just not for long. But before doing his Heel–Face Turn, Ryan was raised by Diabolico to believe that his father loved his sister more than him, among other things. Note, too, that Ryan is the older one of the two — though not by much significantly (2 year-difference). They also go one-on-one in one episode with Dana being able to hold her ground in spite of Ryan having easily kicked hers and all the other Rangers' asses in the previous episode, all the while trying to talk some sense into him.

Catch and Return: The Lightspeed Solarzord's solar panels can absorb an incoming attack to augment its own.

Chekhov's Gun: A submarine is used in the first episode to transport the future Rangers to their underwater Aquabase, then is seemingly forgotten when it's revealed they can travel to the city and back via an underground tunnel. In the finale, they use the same submarine to escape the flooded Aquabase, and Captain Mitchell takes out the Batling-piloted Lifeforce Megazord with it.

Chekhov's Skill: All the Rangers were selected for their skills in certain fields, which come up specifically in different parts of the season.

Clip Show: "The Last Ranger", when four of the Rangers try to regain their memories after a run-in with an amnesia monster, while Dana tries to battle said monster alone.

With a bit of Fridge Logic, this series actually fits. It has one of the vilest villains the franchise has ever seen, got away with saying "dead," had a real gun in one episode, and, perhaps most impressively of all, avertedNo Endor Holocaust, with the carnage caused by the monster attacks taking center stage quite often (they don't go so far as to actually show any dead bodies or anything like that, though). This is quite fitting, as these Rangers are rescue workers first and monster fighters second.

There was even one episode, called "Yesterday Again", where Carter cannot come to the other Rangers' aid on time because of his difficulties in piloting his Mobile Armored Vehicle (which started to malfunction, on top of that) and actually witnesses the other Rangers getting killed by Olympius (yes, you read that correctly; and it was onscreen — but no blood). And no, they did not pull a Kendrix, if you know what we mean. Luckily, and oddly enough, his malfunctioning vehicle gave him the chance to do some time-travelling, thus repeating that same day, which allowed him to prevent their deaths.

Deader Than Dead: One way to interpret Queen Bansheera's fate; a horde of demons rip her soul apart.

Dragged Off to Hell: Queen Bansheera's final plan is to release all the monsters from the Shadow World - every monster ever, going back to MMPR season 1. She is eventually pushed in by the Red Ranger, and latches onto him. The deceased Diabolico, however, appears in spirit form, severs her tentacle, and sends his former mistress to her fate. The last thing we see before the Shadow World tomb closes is all the monsters closing in and starting to pound on her. It's nothing more than she deserved.

Elite Mooks: Demonite, Thunderon and Falkar, Diabolico's last monsters. They spend several episodes kicking the Rangers' butts. The Rangers usually had to resort to underhanded methods to level the playing field against them.

Expy: The blue ranger is a Asian-American man, the green ranger is a bald African-American man, the pink ranger is a blonde girl, the yellow ranger is a brunette girl who's crazier then the the girly pink ranger, the sixth ranger is a sibling to one of the five main rangers, and the red ranger is a Caucasian-American hunk. If this seems familiar, it's because it's the exact same thing they had one season earlier with the Lost Galaxy team.

Fate Worse Than Death: The other way to interpret Queen Bansheera's fate; a horde of demons beats the shit out of her for all eternity. Most fans would agree she deserves this one more.

Freeze-Frame Bonus: A bit of a random and weird one. This pops up while the Lightspeed Megazord is scanning for Queen Bansheera. (Yes, the second one is an actual band.)

Fuel Meter of Power: The Titanium Ranger. Specifically, he's cursed so there's a cobra tattoo on his back, and every time he morphs it rises higher. If it gets to his neck, he dies. Eventually subverted, as Ryan destroys the cobra statue powering the tattoo. This didn't mean he would appear more often, though.

Harmless Freezing: Possibly averted in the episode "In the Freeze one," where Miss Fairweather is frozen solid and seem to need medical assistance to thaw. However, we're never given a clear idea of how lethal the freezing effect was.

Heel–Face Door-Slam: Inverted slightly. After Bansheera took control of him and forced him to fire at the Rangers who were battling Loki, who ended up being hit by the blast and destroyed, Diabolico vowed revenge against the queen. However, before he could act on his plan, Bansheera took control of him and forced him to fight the Rangers, who had no choice but to destroy him. Fortunately, he got another chance in the finale when he came back as a spirit and helped Carter trap her back in the demon world forever.

Homage: Besides the source footage's hat-tipping to the work of Gerry Anderson, Saban's adaptation (perhaps inadvertently) takes it further. Lightspeed is a technologically advanced government agency with clear similarities to the Navy, much like Stingray's WASP.

Improbable Age: Dana's official age is 18, and she's a qualified paramedic. Granted, she's working for her daddy...

By next season's team-up, she has a doctorate. After an episode in Lightspeed predicated on her saving money for medical school. Which she graduated from in one year, according to the Lightspeed Rescue/Time Force team-up episode "Time for Lightspeed". Medical school does not work that way!

Paramedic training can shorten the length of time spent in medical school, but yeah it's still pretty messed up.

Limited Wardrobe: Unlike the previous season there was no justification. They wear Lightspeed jackets over their street clothes. That's it. And their street clothes are the same every episode.

Long Hair Is Feminine: Averted, tomboy Kelsey Winslow is the one with long hair, while Dana Mitchell, who is the girly girl to Kelsey's tomboy, has short hair. However, it's played with as Dana, who is a paramedic, is still much less feminine than a lot of other pink rangers (which as Kimberly).

Combined with Freeze-Frame Bonus; if you look closely a few times in the Aquabase's Transport Bay (where the Rangers often head out to the Train Bay, or in the Rescue Rover), you'll see a small green robot standing around with the Lightspeed emblem for a face. This was Mint, from GoGoV; there he assisted the Rangers by analyzing things, or by piloting the Rail Rescues when they couldn't.

The Titanium Ranger's suit shares some similarities to the Turborangers' suits.

During a subsequent fight with the Titanium Ranger, the Lightspeed Rangers are equipped with the V-Lancers, basically lances equipped with a gun mode. They nail the Titanium Ranger with a combined blast which, by rights, ought to have killed him. However, he's more or less fine, prompting Carter to invoke this trope in his incredulity.

It's also part of the season being Darker and Edgier. Never Say "Die" is still in effect, but their nearly word-for-word No One Could Survive That! reaction makes it clear they had intended and expected the blast they'd just delivered to a human enemy to be fatal. They were all prepared to fire a second volley when Captain Mitchell ordered them to stand down, and were angry that they'd had to let the opponent get away until he revealed that Ryan was his son. (Considering how close he came to beating them, and how his manner of calling the Rangers out tended to be to fire his ax-blaster at random, it's understandable. But still, at the time, such happening in Power Rangers was completely unthinkable.)

Shot-for-Shot Remake: Zigzagged. While the season used most some of the plot from Kyukyu Sentai Go Go V, it also has given the characters their own personalities which are not too similar to their Japanese counterparts AND have its own many original plots as well (specifically: the Titanium Ranger, the Tomb of Forever, Bansheera's fate, etc.).

Team Dad: Captain Mitchell, helped along by the fact that he actually IS a dad.

And to a member of the team, at that. Eventually, two members of the team when Ryan arrives & takes up the Titanium Ranger powers.

This Cannot Be!: Perhaps verbatim when Diabolico unleashes his full arsenal on the Lightspeed Solarzord... and it absorbs the energy. Carter's response: "Sure it can, Diabolico!" *BOOM*

This Is Not a Drill: Invoked, at one point it looks like the demons have been defeated, everyone's celebrating and then the alarms go off, when Carter asks if its a drill, Captain Mitchell responds with "We don't have drills".

Too Dumb to Live: During "Trakeena's Revenge", a young girl's mom is captured by monsters. When the little girl ask another woman's help, she says that there's no such things as monsters. This was midway through the season, after dozens of monsters had attacked the city. Not to mention that just a few years ago, Earth was temporarily taken over by monsters. And this was the team-up episode, confirming that, yes, the last seven seasons of monsters attacks did happen. Not to mention this girl says her mother has been kidnapped. It shouldn't matter what type of thing she says did it - her mom was kidnapped and the woman walks away giving no help, which is insane. It's with good reason that Linkara named this lady "DUMBEST PERSON IN POWER RANGERS EVER."

The Unmasqued World: This is the first season with powers and Zords that are, to all appearances, entirely man-made with no alien intervention at all. Further, Lightspeed is quite public about fighting demons and the Rangers don't particularly bother with secret identities.

Why Don't You Just Shoot Him?: Averted big time. Carter doesn't have any martial arts training, and thus is quick to draw his blaster when dealing with Mooks and the like. To say nothing of the bit when he has a Monster of the Week pinned up against the wall with a BFG in each hand, with the monster daring him to take the shot. He does. And it's awesome.

With All Due Respect: An angry Dana invokes this when she's sent to give her father's friend a ride while the others guard an important fuel cell. It turns out the others are a decoy, and the real fuel cell is with Dana.

Dana: Father, with all due respect, call your friend a taxi!

Would Hurt a Child: At one point, Diabolico was only seconds away from smothering Impus when Jinxer stumbled upon him.

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